Website Tune-Up: Portraits

As I've been gradually working on things around here, I'm actually working in 2 different realities. I'm working virtually with regards to trying to blog more frequently, grow my social media presence, and revamp my website, and I'm working physically with the actual renovation of my basement into a functional photo studio.




One of the main things on my site that needed tweaking was my portraits portfolio. In the previous versions of my site, this was just a section with a bunch of folders/galleries, which contained entire shoots worth of photos. I did this because I had used it as an early preview/proofing area for clients that requested their files on disc and for those that perhaps wanted to show friends and family the photos without uploading attachments or mailing prints. What I realized is that not everyone wants to see all the "meh" shots from other people's sessions. It drags down the quality of the shoot on a whole and it takes my image as a pro right down with it. I remember hearing a quote from another photographer years ago that went something like "Just because you shot it, doesn't mean you have to show it."



I wiped it completely clean and started from scratch, only bringing over a select few examples from specific galleries. Now when you to go the Portraits section of my portfolio, you'll see far fewer images, but they will be the ones that best represent me. After all, that's the entire point of a portfolio in the first place: to show your best work.



I put the required "vanilla" portraits in there, but I also made sure to have a higher concentration of photos with some kind of creative edge to them. Since I'm slightly rebranding myself, I'm embracing the concept of treating every shoot as though it were for a band or a Rock star. My new slogan is "From the stage to the studio, everyone's a Rock star" because I really don't want to do run-of-the-mill portrait work that families could easily go to the mall studios to get done. I want to bring my background in the music industry into the other areas of my work and sort of marry the two worlds together. Anyone can go to Picture People or Portrait Innovations, or any of the other studios that are undercutting the market for independent professionals by offering free sessions and prints that are retailing at half of what I would pay as my cost. They're out to hurt the little guy make money by focusing on volume rather than value, but what happens is that guys like me and some friends of mine that do this from the heart can't compete and sometimes even our own families end up going to them rather than to us. I get it, times are hard, and you go where you can afford, but it still sucks. So this is my way of differentiating in a tough marketplace. You want vanilla, I can do that, but I can't compete with those vanilla guys, so go to them if you prefer. However, if you want something different, something that makes your photos pop with personality, then I'm the guy you're looking for.

More soon,
-Rob